"Hello, I am the executive officer of the Lord of Thunder No. B011, under orders to receive you here." The executive officer saluted the squad of interstellar Marines who had walked up to her.
The executive officer noticed something.
The leader of this squad of interstellar Marines held, unmistakably, the rank of brigadier general!
To become a brigadier general in the post of interstellar Marine,
that was surely harder than for a captain to hold the rank of major general.
She noticed as well that the laser guns in the hands of this squad of interstellar Marines were all at combat readiness, their fingers on the triggers, and that they even kept a wary watch on her and hers.
It meant these interstellar Marines had received some order to stay on high alert toward everyone outside their own squad.
"Hello. As of now this interstellar warship enters a state of special control. Please contact your captain," this interstellar Marine brigadier general said formally.
"Very well."
The executive officer at once opened the ship's internal channel, and a holographic projection appeared before them all.
"Hello, I am the captain of this starship," the captain greeted the interstellar Marine brigadier general.
The interstellar Marine brigadier general said formally, "From this moment, Captain, you and this starship of yours take orders directly from His Majesty the Emperor. All of this interstellar warship's external communications will be shut down, and it will accept communication orders only from the Emperor's flagship. Further, we require four adjoining standard compartments. No one but me and my squad is to go near those four adjoining standard compartments, or the consequences are their own. And access to those four standard compartments will be mine alone. Do you understand my meaning?" the interstellar Marine brigadier general said sternly.
"I understand." The captain nodded; though it felt rather like the turtledove seizing the magpie's nest, this was, after all, the Emperor's order.
That a brigadier general had to escort it in person was enough to show how important the cargo behind that transport vehicle was.
After that, as the brigadier general required,
the captain assigned them four adjoining standard compartments.
The captain on the bridge could no longer see into those four standard compartments through the ship's internal video system.
It could be said that whatever happened within those four standard compartments, she, the captain, had no way of knowing.
At the same time, every external communication device was cut off.
The only one who could communicate was that brigadier general.
"Captain, from now on I will update your course every minute; you need only sail by the course I set. Around you there will be interstellar warships assigned to escort your ship. There is no need to speak with them."
In the pitch-black communication window, no figure could be seen.
But the brigadier general's voice could be heard on the other side.
"Very well." The captain nodded.
……
Of those four secret compartments, three were in fact empty.
The transport vehicle and the interstellar Marines were all in a single compartment.
That too was wholly for security's sake.
The brigadier general looked at the huge black cube on the transport vehicle before her; in truth she did not know what was inside it either.
From the time it came off the production line to the time it was handed over to her.
It had been under secrecy the whole way.
This black cubic 'container', from the moment it was closed.
Could be opened by no one unless the key was obtained from His Majesty the Emperor!
And until then they had to keep guard over it around the clock.
……
"Your Majesty, Brigadier General Cao Yun of the Emperor's Guard Second Marine Corps is standing by. The parcel has been received." The Panther-Girl came to Zhao Chen's side and reported softly.
"Very good. Next, have Xue Xiaoxiao begin according to plan," Zhao Chen said calmly.
"Yes."
The Panther-Girl stood quietly at Zhao Chen's side.
"Panther-Girl, the guard, you have done very well with it," Zhao Chen said suddenly.
"For the Emperor; it is only what I ought," the Panther-Girl said, her face unchanged.
The Panther-Girl was just the same as ever.
After Zhao Chen became Emperor, the Panther-Girl's standing had naturally changed too.
Zhao Chen had also had the Panther-Girl secretly form a force of interstellar Marines, known as the 'Emperor's Guard'.
The Emperor's Guard, like the Emperor's Guard Fleet and the Embroidered-Uniform Guard, answered directly to Zhao Chen.
The latter two covered, respectively, the interstellar fleet, and intelligence and covert cleanup.
The Emperor's Guard stayed mostly at Zhao Chen's side, directly responsible for the tasks he gave.
A very important secret mission like this one, for instance, would be assigned specially to the Emperor's Guard.
Now that the parcel had been received,
it was time to go and try it out.
Zhao Chen fixed his eyes on the interstellar war holo-table.
At this moment Xue Xiaoxiao, too, went on the attack as the battle plan had it.
The Owl Dragon Fourth Fleet Group, led by Xue Xiaoxiao in person, formed an attack formation with the Emperor's Guard Fleet and went on the offensive.
The undead host, already no longer any threat, had no power at all to stand against Xue Xiaoxiao's counterattack.
It was soon torn open by the Owl Dragon Fourth Fleet Group and split in two.
And in this stage great numbers of the undead armies were destroyed.
Once these undead armies had been brought down to a certain number,
Xue Xiaoxiao got in touch with Chu Xuan.
"Sister Chu Xuan, I'm leaving this to you." Facing these old friends, Xue Xiaoxiao was all grins and larking as ever.
Chu Xuan nodded.
The undead host on the Undead Defense Line No. 1 battlefield now had fewer than 250,000 undead creatures left, and its T6 combat units had been hunted down to the last, not one surviving.
In this situation, the garrison on Chu Xuan's side could handle it perfectly well.
"Protect His Majesty. If anything happens, His Majesty's safety comes first!" Chu Xuan reminded her sternly.
"I know." Xue Xiaoxiao nodded hard.
Chu Xuan looked at the closed video window and sighed helplessly.
When she had heard of this combat mission, she had been somewhat surprised.
When she had heard that the Emperor meant to go in person, she had strongly objected, holding it too great a risk.
The mission could be carried out, but the Emperor could not go himself.
Unfortunately, once His Majesty the Emperor had decided something, no one's urging did any good.
In the end it was settled all the same.
Chu Xuan could only remind Xue Xiaoxiao to make sure of the Emperor's safety.
She watched on the radar as those hundred-thousand-odd interstellar warships slowly sailed past the radar's edge and vanished from its range, bound for the fallen Judgment Angel star system.
Chu Xuan let out a long breath, then looked earnestly at the interstellar war holo-table. "Pass the order to every front. Within sixty combat hours, every defense line except Undead Defense Line No. 3 must destroy eighty percent of the undead host before it. Within a hundred hours, the battle is to be over!"
This undead crisis in the Judgment Angel star system, it was time to end it.